Minimally Invasive Gynecological Surgery: A New and Better Way to do Old Things

I have been a practicing OB/GYN physician since 1985. In the 28 years since I began, medicine has advanced tremendously and the field of gynecology is no different. As a surgeon, I pride myself in taking up newer practice methods that have been proven to be better for my patients. Sometimes, these kinds of changes can be small, other times they can be humongous! In the last few years, I have chosen to make one of these big changes for the good of the patients I serve. I have worked for several years now to perfect the art of minimally invasive gynecological surgery. It’s an exciting new technique for doing many common gynecological surgeries, like hysterectomies, in an extraordinary new way that has huge benefits for my patients.

Before we get to the new and exciting stuff, it might help to understand how these procedures are usually done and have been done for many years. Before I began doing minimally invasive surgeries, incisions for surgeries would have to be large enough to work with gloved hands in the abdomen of the patient and physically do the work that needed to be done, such as removing the uterus or tying fallopian tubes. Although this traditional method has been used for decades and is safe for the patient, it results in a large incision that has drawbacks such as a relatively long recovery time (around 3 days in the hospital).

Using minimally invasive surgery techniques dramatically reduces many of these drawbacks. By using tiny 5mm incisions – about enough for a large pen to fit through – my patients have much smaller scars, recover faster, and have better overall outcomes. You may be asking “How could you possibly fit your hand in a tiny 5mm space?” I don’t! Instead I use sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools made especially to fit into these small spaces while I see into the patient using an advanced high definition optical camera (called a Laparoscope). It requires the perfection of all new skills to do surgery in this way, but after over 200 procedures completed I have seen the benefits for my patients are worth it. Using these advanced techniques, patients can usually go home from the hospital in one day (compared to about three days), they can enjoy a faster complete recovery, and have much smaller scarring (5mm incisions compared to a 100mm incision).

I am extremely proud to be one of the few practicing physicians in the Port Saint Lucie/Treasure Coast area that is both offering these procedures to all of my patients, and has the extensive experience of well over 200 minimally invasive surgeries completed. Over the coming weeks I will be offering more detailed information about minimally invasive gynecological surgery on this site, so make sure to bookmark us, subscribe to our RSS feed, and stay tuned for future updates!